Shop for Justice

By Valerie Orth

World Fair Trade Week, May 3-9, was an opportunity for Americans
to combine their passion for shopping with economic justice, which
are often at odds in the world of consumption. Last week when
shoppers made an effort to purchase Fair Trade products, instead of
grabbing boxes off the shelves, they were consciously choosing to
improve the lives of small farmers and artisans around the world.

The Fair Trade programs supported by the international human
rights group Global Exchange guarantee small-scale farmer
cooperatives a minimum price, and thus a decent living. Fair Trade
certification requires third-party monitoring to set a consistent
standard that includes labor rights and environmental sustainability.
So, when consumers in the developed world for one week in May make
that conscious decision, they make a huge difference in the lives of
others; and if they keep making that choice the rest of the year they
could even gradually shift the global market in a more just
direction.

Take coffee, for example. The Fair Trade price remains at $1.27
per pound. The world market price hovers around 60 cents and is
sometimes significantly lower. But when the coffee gets to the
consumer the price differential is just pennies on the dollar. Such
an insignificant amount to the consumer can mean the farmers'
children, and in turn their children, having adequate health care,
clothing and education.

Or take chocolate: cocoa beans. In West Africa the situation for
cocoa growers has gotten so bleak that the International Labor
Organization has reported abusive child labor practices and even
child slavery. Wouldn't somewhat more expensive chocolate be worth
it, knowing your sweet tooth does not contribute to the immiseration
of children?

Fair Trade remains a viable solution to these and many other
producer problems. But right now the biggest problem with Fair Trade
is insufficient demand. That is where World Fair Trade week came in,
by publicizing the existence of Fair Trade and educating consumers
about the need for Fair Trade.

Another even more effective way of ensuring the success of Fair
Trade would be if major corporations like M&M/Mars, Starbucks and
Procter & Gamble (as owner of Folger's and Millstone the
country's largest coffee company) just started purchasing more Fair
Trade product. If those companies alone started buying 5% of their
product at Fair Trade prices, it would be a huge boost to the world
Fair Trade market. But convincing those companies always takes work:
It took a two-year campaign led by Global Exchange and other
community organizations to get Proctor & Gamble to carry just one
online Fair Trade coffee line.

M&M/Mars, the world's largest chocolate company with revenues
of $16 billion, still won't engage in productive dialogue with Global
Exchange to improve their Fair Trade purchasing position. Global
Exchange organized a national call-in campaign last week and urged
the company to buy Fair Trade cocoa beans.

Then there is Starbucks. In 2000 Starbucks promised to sell Fair
Trade Certified coffee to head off a Global Exchange campaign
demanding that the company buy 5% of its coffee under Fair Trade
Certified terms. Yet this year less than 1% of Starbucks' coffee is
Fair Trade Certified.

But Starbucks is brewing Fair Trade coffee during World Fair Trade
Week. We're pleased that Starbucks is doing this and we are waiting
for the day when brewed Fair Trade coffee at Starbucks will be the
rule instead of a newsworthy exception. That would really be
something to celebrate.

These large corporations have the ability and the responsibility
to reform the coffee industry and dramatically increase Fair Trade
sales. But it is also up to consumers and corporations to purchase
more Fair Trade products not just during World Fair Trade Week but
all year round.